Wednesday, March 02, 2016

As I write, this minute, the Animation Guild has 3.467 people working under its jurisdiction.

This is a long way from the 700 artists, writers and technicians who were employed under a contract in 1989, but hey. Twenty-seven years ago, animation was the ugly, beaten step-child of the movie and television industry. Now it is not only beloved, but a big profit center in Tinsel Town (which explains why it's now beloved).

TV work has steadily grown over the past three years, and looks to be growing some more in 2016. DreamWorks Animation TV is steaming ahead with new orders from Netflix, and the conglomerates (Disney, Time-Warner, Fox) are developing new content.

There have been a number of new studios that have entered the Los Angeles market. Some, like Original Force 3-D Animation, the Guild has signed contracts with. Others, like Alpha Animation Inc., remain unorganized. (Both of these studios come from mainland China). There are small TV animation studios (like Wild Canary and Robin Red Breast) doing sub-contracting work for the majors, and a few like Splash Entertainment (formerly Moonscoop, formerly Mike Young Productions) doing original content with larger partners.

The long and short of it is, the Los Angeles animation scene is active and vibrant; if there wasn't a country to our north giving away fistfuls of Free Money, it would be even more vibrant. But even with the subsidized cartoon work force in Canada, Los Angeles is doing all right. As the list directly below will attest. ...

Kindly note that there is big overlap with this post's previous incarnation, but also a lot of new projects. As before, feel free to comment at the bottom; we will add or subtract shows as needed, for we are not all-seeing nor infallible. ...

ANIMATION PRODUCTIONS IN LOS ANGELES COUNTY
(Mainly guild work, but also some non-guild productions. Obviously the list will be amended as we go along, no?)

(Note that FR has recently been sold by Starz Media to a new holding company, that corporate topkick Dana Booten has resigned from the company but founder Phil Roman has returned, and that there are various projects in development.

However, the company is no longer doing "Ultimate Spiderman" or "The Simpsons". Spidey moved to Marvel Animation under a different title, and the Yellow Family shifted to Fox Animation as of January 1st.)

The network has greenlit two animated comedies, Billy Dilley's Super-Duper Subterranean Summer and Country Club.

Billy Dilley’s hails from Aaron Springer (SpongeBob SquarePants) and will premiere in 2017, while Country Club comes from comic book creators Chris and Shane Houghton (Harvey Beaks) are is slated to launch in 2018. Both are produced by Disney Television Animation (TVA). ...

Kindly note that the number of projects contained in this post has been steadily expanding over the last few days.

Disneytoon has a little something in development, but the facility on Sonora is being (mostly) used by Walt Disney Animation Studios while crew is out of the Hat Building on Riverside Drive.

Speaking of the Hat, employees are now re-occupying the 2nd and 3rd floors while the 1st floor and basement continue with re-construction. (The top two levels look GREAT, by the way. A total make-over from the structure's first incarnation).

A couple things about Universal:A) Land Before Time? Does this mean more sequels?B) Alvin and the Chipmunks??C) Is Curious George done?D) I heard somewhere that Bill Kopp was developing a Woody Woodpecker project. Did that ever go anywhere?

Is Mixels going to be continuing after this next episode or is it wrapping up? (It's okay if you don't have that information -- even with the CN Studios production it's still a LEGO property and surely they might be a bit secretive about it)

The thoughts and observations of the leaders of The Animation Guild (TAG), Local 839 IATSE. Jason MacLeod is the Business Representative, KC Johnson is the President. Mike Sauer is Assistant to the Business Representative.

This weblog reflects their individual personal opinions and does not necessarily represent the official position of the Animation Guild.

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